


The Funeral

by allyasavedtheday



Series: New Beginnings [10]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Character Death, New Girl au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyasavedtheday/pseuds/allyasavedtheday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Everything okay?" Stiles asks, noticing the way Derek seems completely lost.</p><p>"Uh, my dad died." Derek replies thickly, absently. "I guess he had a heart attack or something...I've gotta go home for the funeral."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Funeral

Stiles, Scott and Allison are on the couch watching some comedy that's not actually funny when Derek comes home, looking dazed.

"Everything okay?" Stiles asks, noticing the way Derek seems completely lost.

"Uh, my dad died," Derek replies thickly, absently. "I guess he had a heart attack or something...I've gotta go home for the funeral."

The words don't even really sink in but Stiles is already off the couch and wrapping his arms around Derek. He feels Scott and Allison do the same not a moment later.

"We're coming with you," Stiles murmurs with finality.

Derek doesn't say anything; he just nods from where his head is buried in Stiles' neck.

*

It takes them the rest of the day to drive to Beacon Hills - Stiles, Scott and Allison in the jeep and Derek, Erica, Isaac and Boyd in the Camaro. Once they arrive at Derek's house, Erica and Boyd sidle up to Stiles, Scott and Allison. 

"Just so you know," Erica mutters, "Derek's family is sort of..."

At that moment a little girl - really she can't be more than three or four - comes bursting out of the front door and barrels into Derek. "Uncle Derek!" she squeals happily as he picks her up.

"Rambunctious," Erica finishes her earlier sentence with a grin.

Derek smiles for the first time since he's gotten the news about his father and ruffles the little girl's hair. "Hi Kayla."

They follow Derek into the house and the first thing Stiles notices is that there's people everywhere. Isaac rushes immediately to a pretty girl standing in the foyer and wraps his arms around her.

"Derek's sister," Boyd answers when he notices Stiles staring.

"Cora," Erica supplies. "She and Isaac have been in love with each other for years but are too stupid to admit it."

"Sounds familiar," Boyd mutters under his breath. Erica elbows him in the ribs.

Derek sets down Kayla when a woman, who's clearly his mother, comes over to them. "Derek," she says tenderly, her eyes sad.

"Hey mom." He pulls her into a hug. 

When she pulls away she tries to smile and looks at his friends waiting behind him. "I know Erica, Isaac and Boyd of course. But Derek, who are your other friends?"

"Oh." He turns around and gestures to them, "These are my roommates, Scott, Allison and Stiles. Guys, this is my mom; Talia. You can meet Laura, Cora, Peter and everyone else later."

They share the customary handshakes, hugs and greetings and Derek turns back to his mom. "What do you need me to do?"

"Laura and Peter are covering most of the funeral plans," she assures. "But we were hoping you'd do the eulogy?"

Derek freezes - obviously blanching at the thought of getting up in front of everyone and telling them about his dad. Stiles catches his eye and nods discreetly, mouthing, "You should do it."

He sighs and looks back at his mother, forcing a smile. "Of course."

*

The night before the funeral, Stiles gets up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water when he notices the light still on in Derek's bedroom. It's 4am, surely he's not still awake?

Stiles goes to the door and sees Derek sitting on his bed, reams and reams of paper surrounding him. Some is balled up on the floor; other pieces have words repeatedly crossed out. Derek himself is writing on a piece of paper, after a minute he makes a noise of frustration, rips the paper from the pad, balls it up and throws it at the trash can. He misses.

"Hey." Stiles finally makes his presence known and leans against the doorframe.

Derek looks up with tired eyes and scrubs a hand over his face. "Hey."

"You okay?" It's a stupid question, Stiles knows. He knows it's probably the last thing Derek wants to hear.

"I can't write this stupid eulogy," Derek sighs, shoving the paper around him away.

Stiles takes a cautious step into the room and when Derek doesn't tell him to leave, he makes his way over to the bed. "It doesn't really matter what you say, Derek. As long as you say it."

Derek's silent for a long time until he finally shakes his head. "No."

Stiles frowns, "What?"

"No, I can't do this. I'm not doing it." He pushes himself off the bed and starts moving around the room.

"Derek-"

" _No_ ," Derek yells and then, seeming to remember the whole house is sleeping, he lowers his voice. "No. I don't want to do this. I need to- I need to go."

He gets his feet in his shoes, grabs his coat, his keys and what Stiles recognises as the bag that holds his suit and heads for the door.

"Derek." Stiles tries to follow him but Derek's down the stairs and out the door before he even makes it to the landing.

*

When he gets up the next morning Derek's still not home - not that he really expected him to be. He sits in the kitchen with Cora and Laura while Laura feeds Kayla and tries not to worry. The others aren't even awake yet so it's not like he can talk to Scott.

"You look worried," Cora comments, appraising him over her coffee mug.

"Are you sure we shouldn't be looking for Derek?" he asks.

Laura shakes her head, "He does this sometimes when he's stressed out. We expect too much of him sometimes, I guess," she shrugs with a sad smile. "He'll come back when he's calmed down."

Stiles nods and pushes his breakfast around his plate again, he doesn't have much of an appetite right now.

"So, what's exactly going on between you and my brother?" Cora asks after a minute.

"Why do people keep asking me that?" Stiles groans - trying to figure out what's going on with himself and Derek isn't exactly high on his list of priorities right now.

"All I know is, Kate was his entire world and she smashed his heart to smithereens. And yet, seven months have passed and he seems completely over it. He hasn't even mentioned her since September," she answers with a smirk eerily reminiscent of Derek's.

"Wonder what that means?" Laura inputs with a raised eyebrow.

"It means he's getting laid is what it means," Cora grins.

Stiles sputters, trying and failing to come up with a response. Eventually he settles on, "How are you two scarier than Derek?"

They laugh and look far too pleased with themselves. "It's because Derek's a big softie at heart, really," Laura answers. 

“What’s going on with you and Isaac?” Stiles counters to Cora, though he obviously missed the window for that comeback about five minutes ago. Hey, better late than never, right?

“None of your business,” Cora says simply, smirking again.

It’s official. Literally every single woman he knows looks like she could kill him with her pinky finger.

*

It's almost time for the funeral to begin and Derek's _still_  not there. Erica, Isaac and Boyd are in the lobby with Stiles, Scott and Allison trying to figure out what to do - Derek's family have too much on their plate without dealing with this too.

They're seriously considering going out and looking for him when Derek stumbles in; jacket open, the buttons on his shirt done up wrong, smelling of alcohol and a piece of paper in his hand.

Stiles lets out a sigh of relief as they all rush to him. "Where the hell have you been?" he demands.

"I did the thing you asked," he slurs, leaning on Boyd. "I wrote the...the..."

"Eulogy?" Isaac supplies.

Derek claps him on the back and shoves the piece of paper at Stiles. "Yes! That."

Stiles opens the crumpled piece of paper and reads it aloud. ""Richard Hale; a great man."" He sighs and takes hold of Derek, pulling him away from Boyd. "Let's get you cleaned up." He looks to the others next, "Can you stall?"

"On it," Isaac promises and they make their way inside, leaving him alone with Derek.

*

Stiles sits Derek down on a stool by the sinks in the bathroom. Thankfully, the place is empty. He finds mints in his pocket and shoves them into Derek's hand - he needs to get the smell of alcohol off his breath. And then he sets to work on trying to fix Derek's appearance.

"You're mad," Derek concludes.

Stiles sighs and continues running his fingers through Derek's hair, trying to fluff it up into something presentable. "I'm not mad."

"Yeah, you are. You've got your mad face on." Stiles sincerely wishes Derek wasn't so adorable while drunk.

"I'm not mad," he promises. "I'm worried. That's what friends do. They worry."

Derek's brow creases in a frown and Stiles removes a hand from his hair to try and smooth it out again. "Friends?" Derek asks.

"Yeah. You’re my friend."

"Is that all I am?"

Stiles swallows and looks away - they are  _not_  having this conversation right now. "Come on, stand up. Let me tie your tie."

Derek bobs his head and lets Stiles pull him to his feet. He's already steadier, Stiles notes with relief.

He undoes the shabby job Derek's done of tying his tie and focuses on deftly knotting the material. He can feel Derek's eyes on him.

"Remember when I had to tie your tie for that wedding?" Derek mumbles. He leans forward a little and Stiles isn't sure whether he's swaying on his feet by accident or he's actually trying to close the distance between them so he plants his hands on Derek's shoulders to hold him in place. 

"My, how the tables have turned," he shrugs with a half-smile.

Derek actually offers him a smile in return and it makes him feel better. "You have to say your eulogy," Stiles says, seeking out Derek's gaze.

Derek stares at him and Stiles has never seen him so vulnerable. His eyes are glassy but Stiles doesn't believe for one second that it's from alcohol and it looks like he's biting the inside of his cheek. "I don't know what to say," Derek eventually whispers - it doesn't stop his voice from cracking, Stiles realises sadly.

"Just go up there and tell everyone how much you love your dad," he murmurs, squeezing Derek's shoulders gently. "And I promise, I'll be there to hold your hand and everything will be okay."

Stiles doesn't dare look away until Derek nods faintly and says, "Okay".

*

Stiles takes his seat in between Scott and Erica in the row behind Derek's family and watches nervously as Derek stands at the alter looking lost. Derek's eyes scan the crowd; he looks to his family first, then his friends - when his eyes land on Stiles, Stiles smiles at him.

Then, he clears his throat and begins, "I used to think my dad was a superhero, I guess like most kids do. He was never scared of anything and I thought he knew everything...” He smiles a faraway smile, looking down. “It wasn't until I was a little bit older that my dad told me he didn't know everything, he just knew one very important thing.

"He said that no matter how bad things get the sun will set every night and rise again every morning. He told me that as long as that was true then things would be okay. So, I'm really gonna hold him to that because I think we all need to believe this will be okay."

Derek stutters for a moment, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand and Stiles' heart clenches. He visibly grips the lectern a little tighter after he looks back at the casket once. "I love my dad. And I'm really gonna miss him. But I have to believe we’re gonna be okay because that’s what he’d want."

Derek smiles briefly and returns to his seat with his family then, looking relieved to have the focus off him. After a minute or so, his hand slips through the gap in the seats and Stiles reaches out to take it without hesitation. He watches as Derek's shoulders loosen as soon as Stiles takes his hand and tries not to think about what that means.

*

His mom, Laura, Cora and Peter all gather around Derek when he's almost ready to leave. Laura hugs him first - more like squeezes the life out of him, really. "Come back soon, okay?" she says, kissing his cheek. "It's boring here without you."

He huffs a laugh and promises that he will and she steps back looking pleased. Cora steps in next, hugging him tightly, "Love you, Der. You don't mind if I try to date your best friend, right?" She pulls away with a mischievous grin and Derek sighs exasperatedly.

"Tell Isaac if he hurts you, I'll lose him in the woods and nobody's gonna find him." He's only half joking.

Cora laughs like it's the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard and pats his arm. "I'll let  _you_  tell him that, I think."

Peter hugs him next, clapping him on the back. Derek thinks he's almost being sincere when he says, "I'm proud of you." 

Finally his mom pulls him into a warm embrace. "Take care, sweetheart. It's nice to know you have someone looking out for you all the way out there in LA." She looks at something over his shoulder and when Derek turns around he sees Stiles trying - and failing - to open his trunk and looking adorably frustrated.

When he looks back to his mother, she's smiling knowingly. 

"Love you, Mom." He kisses her cheek and squeezes her hand before pulling away.

"Love you too. Drive safe!"

As he walks away from his family and toward his friends, he thinks about what his mom said. Without really thinking about it, he calls out to Stiles. "Hey Stiles!"

The boy in question looks up, after finally getting his trunk open. "You okay?"

"Drive home with me?" He doesn't want to sound hopeful but before he can even worry about rejection, Stiles' face breaks into a smile.

"Scott!" Stiles calls before throwing his keys to the other boy. 

"Erica," Derek says quietly when he reaches his own car.

"Got it," she whispers, patting Derek's arm with a smile. Then, she's dragging Boyd away by the hand to the jeep and Isaac follows them not a moment later.

"Ready to go home?" Stiles asks when he reaches Derek. He's smiling softly and his cheeks are slightly flushed and he's everything Derek needs right now.

"Yeah."

**Author's Note:**

> So I don't really like this one :/ I really wanted to write it because I love the episode and there's some great, emotional Nick/Jess moments but writing it just wasn't working. But I knew the longer I stared at it the more frustrated I would get so I decided to post. So yeah, sorry it's not up to standard - no that my standards are very high anyway XD Hopefully the next one will be better!
> 
> As always, characters do not belong to me. Oh and I assume most of you realise this anyway but I feel I should say, every now and again there may be a line or so from the show in these fics if I think they're appropriate. So if you're ever unsure about a line, you can always ask me :)
> 
> As per usual, I'm [ allyasavedtheday](http://allyasavedtheday.tumblr.com/) on tumblr :)


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